Bonkers Blog January 2015

Following a tip off I found BBC Radio London on 94·9 FM yesterday afternoon. They
seemed to be having some sort of Bexley Phone In Day as there was a whole host of knowalls who had
never been near the court room who knew more about
Bexleyheath’s naughty teacher
case than the judge with all her experience who had carefully listened to the evidence. I
vowed not to tune in to such tripe again.

However the real reason for listening turned up at twenty five past
five in the shape of David Bryce-Smith (Bexley’s
Deputy Director of Public Protection and Housing) who didn’t sound too happy
while defending Bexley council’s housing record which includes
sending some families to
Manchester because local landlords are charging too much rent.

I thought he acquitted himself quite well, he faces a near impossible task.

At 18:40 (another tip off) Mr. Bryce-Smith was on BBC1 News doing the same thing.

He’s probably doing all he can under present circumstances. And that is just it. How did we come to be in such a state that
working families can’t afford to live in what Bexley council and others say is the cheapest place for
accommodation in the whole of London? Have public authorities no foresight or initiative any more?

I
once found myself homeless. I was only one year old at the time but Mr. Hitler dropped a
big firework on the house where I was born.

We weren’t sent to Manchester, in fact we didn’t move out of town. The local council
saw there was an emergency and rapidly built some tin huts. They had a toilet but
no bath, unless you count the zinc plated tub.

Recognising that that was a bit primitive even for the 1940s the tin hut was
soon replaced by an asbestos box, more commonly known as a Prefab. That was a
definite step up, it even had a built-in fridge which almost no one had in 1947.

Since then we have all got far too posh and expect far too much. You can imagine
the outcry if Bexley council decided its housing crisis had to be solved and
covered the Tesco site
in Broadway with tin huts.

Instead we get ‘affordable homes’
(three bedroom terraced) that cost £600,000 to buy outright and which will be a
millstone around the neck for life of anyone who might want to buy and has saved
the huge deposit. I really can’t understand how 343 houses which received a £23 million subsidy from Boris
Johnson (£67,000 each) can still have cost more than half a million pounds each. Someone somewhere
has engineered a massive rip off under the noses of a negligent Bexley council.

Everyone who has ever insured a house will (or should) know that the building
cost is nothing like as much as an estate agent’s valuation and no builder would
charge that much without a visit from a Trading Standards inspector - if we still had any.

But while the sort of economics that leads to Erith Park prices prevails, along with unrealistic expectations
by those who do not enjoy the highest of incomes, David Bryce-Smith
has one hell of a housing problem on his plate.